The Force

Crew

Directed by Peter Nicks

"Sprawling, immediate, and complex, Peter Nicks’s vérité documentary moves like a pulsing, timely thriller. In 2014, after over a decade of federal monitoring for misconduct and civil rights abuses, the Oakland Police Department hires Chief Sean Whent … in hopes of bridging an historically tense divide between its officers and the community they serve. The Force captures everything; it hovers over Oakland’s evening skies and rides inside speeding police vehicles, granting viewers breathless firsthand access to some of law enforcement’s most dangerous jobs. With fly-on-the-wall intimacy, we see a department trapped in transition, desperate to shed its corrupt image but also challenged by an increasingly organized and urgent Black Lives Matter movement erupting right outside its doorstep." – Harry Vaughn, Sundance Film Festival

Reviews

"Hypnotic and eye-opening. The Force has the texture of a Michael Mann film combined with the clarity of a Frederick Wiseman documentary. I could have watched it for hours more."

Interested in bringing The Force to your school or library?
If you'd like to have an in-class viewing, on-campus screening, or purchase the DVD for
your library's collection, please contact Estelle Grosso at EDU@kinolorber.com or call
(212) 629-6880 with your request.